Hygiene Passport Training and Test

Who is required to have a Hygiene Passport?

An employee must have a hygiene passport if they

• work on food premises and
• handle unpackaged perishable foods.

For example such groups as employers, volunteers, students or trainees must also have Hygiene Passports if they work with unpackaged foods on food premises.

Food premises include for example:

1. cafés, restaurants and fast food restaurants
2. food stores (shops that sell foodstuffs)
3. institutional kitchens, bakeries and factories that produce foodstuffs.

Perishable foods include for example milk, meat, fish and chopped vegetables.

Hygiene proficiency requirements

Under the Food Act, the Finnish Food Authority may determine the grounds on which a Hygiene Passport can be obtained and what the candidates must know in order to obtain a Hygiene Passport (Finnish Food Authority regulation on hygiene proficiency 9/2025). The Hygiene Passport test has been designed to require food hygiene proficiency in the following areas:

• Basic information on microbiology and food contamination

• Food poisonings

• Hygiene work methods

• Personal hygiene

• Sanitation

• Own check

• Legislation, authorities.

General information about Hygiene Passports

The Hygiene Passport will be issued with your full name (all first names and last names) and Finnish personal identification number. If the person does not yet have a Finnish personal identification number, a Hygiene Passport with the full name and date of birth will be issued. 

The Hygiene Passport Examiner orders the Hygiene Passport using the personal data that the candidate has themselves written on the test form and which the Examiner has checked from the identity document when returning the test form. 

The Hygiene Passport is valid until further notice. It is not temporary, but it must saved and the personal information must be correct.

Hygiene Passports obtained abroad are not valid in Finland. In addition, qualifications or education related to food hygiene completed abroad do not substitute for a Hygiene Passport. A Finnish Hygiene Passport cannot be obtained based on a hygiene passport or education completed abroad.

The possibility of a Finnish Hygiene Passport being accepted abroad depends on the state in question. Enquiries about this issue should be addressed directly to the authorities of this state.

Hygiene Passport test

The candidates write their background information and mark their answers on the Finnish Food Authority's test form.

• To do so, the candidate should use a ballpoint pen or similar which is not black. This ensures that the answers cannot be changed later.
• The candidate ticks the "True" or "False" box depending on whether they agree or disagree with the statement. 
• To pass the test, the candidate must obtain at minimum 34 points out of 40. The candidate gets one point for each correct answer. No minus points are deducted for incorrect answers and, consequently, the candidate can get up to six questions wrong and still pass the test. Empty boxes or answers marked unclearly (making it impossible for the Examiner to decide which alternative the candidate intended to choose) are interpreted as incorrect.